TWO WV RIVERS “MOST ENDANGERED”
TWO WV RIVERS “MOST ENDANGERED”
By Cindy Rank
For each of the past 25 years the national organization AMERICAN RIVERS has selected ten rivers in America for their “most endangered” list. Both the Gauley and the Monongahela Rivers made this years top ten list.
Rivers are nominated by concerned citizens and river groups across the country as being imperiled by some specific activity.
Choosing ten as the “Most Endangered” is meant to draw attention to the threat itself and to a major action in the coming year that might lessen the threat. The listing encourages the public to voice support for those actions… e.g. by writing to Congress or some federal or state agency that is considering some new regulation or legislation.
CHECKING IN AT #3 THIS YEAR IS THE GAULEY.
THREAT: Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining
Rising in the Monongahela National Forest and flowing southwest through the Gauley River National Recreation Area before joining the New River at Gauley Bridge to form the Kanawha River, the Gauley is well known and enjoyed by river runners, fishing enthusiasts, hikers, bikers and a myriad of communities throughout the basin.
However, major tributaries such as Twentymile and Peters Creek in Nicholas County are being impacted by massive mountaintop removal mines. Drainage from coal mines in these as well as other streams in the Gauley watershed degrades water quality in the basin. Many fear for the future of the famed Gauley River if these drainages are allowed to continue – or worse, to increase in number.
Partners with American Rivers on listing the Gauley are the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment and the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition as well as the WV Highlands Conservancy.
“The Army Corps of Engineers must start to follow the science showing the devastating impacts throughout central Appalachia and put an end to mountaintop removal. Business as usual is destroying of one of the most biologically diverse and culturally rich areas in the world,” said Margaret Janes, Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment.
“Headwater streams that feed the lower reaches of the Gauley are no less healthy and thriving and worthy of protection than those that rise further upstream in our beloved Monongahela National Forest,” said Cindy Rank with the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy. “If we continue to allow companies to emaciate streams like Twentymile, Peters Creek and Muddlety the Gauley basin is in peril.”
“We can act now to protect the Gauley by stopping mountaintop removal,” said Vivian Stockman, with the Huntington, W.Va.-based Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. “Not only will ending mountaintop removal protect the revenue generated by recreation and tourism around the Gauley, we will protect human health, too. Studies show that mountaintop removal mining is polluting streams to the point that people’s health is compromised.”
Collectively, the issues below have the potential to change the way mining is practiced in the Gauley River watershed and throughout Appalachia.
In March 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed new water quality guidelines for conductivity resulting from mountaintop removal mining. High conductivity harms aquatic life and can cause toxic algae blooms that destroy stream habitat. EPA must adopt this conductivity standard as regulation and apply the standard to all surface mining activity. The agency is accepting comments on the conductivity guidance until December 2010.
In addition, EPA must issue strong revisions to the national selenium water quality criteria guidelines and must offer clear guidance to states and the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitary Commission (ORSANCO) on how to implement them. States must adopt and enforce these standards. EPA must also work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to complete the review of a list of 79 permits and prohibit destructive valley fills or harmful pollution discharges into streams. These agencies must set limits on the cumulative damage from multiple valley fills and pollution discharges to watersheds.
Ultimately, EPA and other regulatory agencies must prohibit the further destruction of Appalachian rivers from the practices associated with mountaintop removal mining in order for rivers like the Gauley to remain healthy for communities, businesses, industry, and tourism.
The public is being urged to contact Lisa Jackson/EPA and Jo Ellen Darcy/Army Corps to issue critical new water quality safeguards and to ultimately prohibit further destruction of Appalachian rivers from mountaintop removal mining.
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[RELATED NOTE: On May 24, 2010 the WV Highlands Conservancy and the WV Chapter of Sierra Club issued a notice of intent to sue FOLA Coal Company for violations of the Clean Water Act and Surface Mine Act at its FOLA #3 mine that discharges into a Boardtree Branch, a tributary of Twentymile Creek of the Gauley in Nicholas County.
In particular the results of water quality testing performed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) just downstream from the valley fill in Boardtree Branch showed, under several measures, that the company’s mining operations have caused significant negative impacts and have harmed aquatic life in the stream. EPA’s testing revealed levels of conductivity more than five times EPA’s benchmark for protecting stream health. In addition, the testing revealed levels of acute toxicity for the stream over ten times EPA’s criteria for aquatic life protection, as well as chronic toxicity levels over six times the EPA criteria.
FOLA has sixty days to come into full compliance with the laws or we will file a citizens’ suit seeking civil penalties for ongoing and continuing violations and for an injunction compelling FOLA to come into compliance with the Surface Mine and Clean Water Acts.]
# 9 THIS YEAR IS THE MONONGAHELA RIVER.
THREAT: Natural Gas Extraction
Though there is much to be said about the major rivers in the upper reaches of the Monongahela River basin, this year American Rivers’ listing of the Mon focuses mainly on the threat of pollution by large amounts of water withdrawal for and discharge of untreated wastewater from Marcellus Shale gas well drilling in the portion of the river that spans the state border between Fairmont WV and Pittsburgh PA.
The Mon Basin is located within the region of the Marcellus Shale, a geological formation that lies between 5,000 and 8,000 feet below the earth’s surface. Energy companies have already begun to extract the natural gas in the shale through a process known as hydraulic fracturing. In this process, millions of gallons of water, often taken from streams, lakes, and rivers, are mixed with chemicals and injected deep into the shale to release the gas. Furthermore, diminished flows caused by excessive water withdrawals can impair wildlife, recreation, and decrease a water body’s ability to dilute and assimilate pollutants from wastewater discharges.
Problems with drinking water and industrial equipment at power plants along the river during low flows in the fall of 2008 and the death of Dunkard Creek in 2009 put a spotlight on high levels of dissolved solids in the Mon River between northern West Virginia and southeastern Pennsylvania.
Partnering with American Rivers and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy on this listing are the Pennsylvania based Center for Coalfield Justice and the West Virginia Rivers Coalition.
“Residents, landscapes, and waterways of the Monongahela River Basin and nearby areas are already suffering community disintegration and environmental destruction at the hands of longwall coal mining and other under-regulated fossil fuel industry practices. The futures of these regions may be grimmer still if our legislators and government agencies don’t take immediate action to implement better environmental protections for Marcellus Shale development,” said Emily Bloom with the Center for Coalfield Justice.
“This scale of this gas drilling boom has caught regulators by surprise, and the environmental problems associated with it are affecting millions of people. State and federal governments must move quickly to put regulatory safeguards in place that protect our resources for the benefit of all,” said Shanda Minney with the West Virginia Rivers Coalition.
“Just as mountaintop removal coal mining is rightfully known as ‘strip mining on steroids’, horizontal drilling and hydrofracing deep in the Marcellus Shale is surely ‘gas drilling on steroids’“ said Cindy Rank of the WV Highlands Conservancy. “Enforceable standards are needed to control fresh water withdrawals, the use and disposal of chemically laced frac and flowback water, and the treatment and disposal of the brine and NORMs (naturally occurring radioactive material) in the produced water.”
The listing urges people to support the states of West Virginia and Pennsylvania in efforts to revise regulations for natural gas extraction in the Marcellus Shale, particularly with regard to allowable concentrations of total dissolved solids in wastewater discharges. The Departments of Environmental Protection for both states must promptly issue and enact revised regulations to set wastewater standards that adequately protect the aquatic life and drinking water supplies for communities within the Marcellus region.
The public is also encouraged to support federal legislation called the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals (FRAC) Act of 2009 (S. 1215/H.R. 2766) introduced by Senator Robert Casey (D-PA), Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), Representative Diana DeGette (D-CO), Representative Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), and Representative Jared Polis (D-CO). This legislation would repeal the exemption for hydraulic fracturing in the Safe Drinking Water Act and require disclosure of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing fluids. The FRAC Act must be passed by Congress to improve the protection of drinking water throughout the Marcellus Shale region.
To learn more please read the documents below.
American Rivers Press Release on The Gauley River
Gauley River Action Alert
Gauley River Factsheet
American Rivers Press Release on The Monongahela River
Monongahela River Action Alert
Monongahela River Factsheet
Please visit the American Rivers web site where you can take action now and send a message on-line.
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